Sonic on Ice
by AST B-612
Summary: Sonic, Tails and Knuckles take on Doctor Eggman, who plans to ambush a forest. However, Sonic gets more than he bargained for when he realizes he can't stand-or stand on-ice.


Sonic, Tails and Knuckles rushed to the edge of the forest, stopping when they saw the outline of the frozen pond in front of them. It was right before dark, the period of time between when the sun has set, but its light had yet to completely fade.

They looked around, then in front of them to the other side of the pond. Eggman had said he would be there at nightfall. The scenery looked as peaceful as it ever was. Behind them, a small village of people, chao and animals. The village were safe for the time being from Eggman's plot to send his bots in to take scrap metal.

Tails squinted at the other end of the pond, then looked at Sonic and Knuckles.

"Eggman said he would be here by now, didn't he?"

Knuckles, not keeping his eyes off the view in front of them, made a noise as though acknowledging Tails' question.

"Has he ever given us a warning?" Knuckles said.

Sonic was ready to bring up all of the times Eggman gleefully announced on live television to terrified audiences his vicious plots to destroy some city or other. He then considered. Eggman had no problem warning people who couldn't do much to protect themselves of his intention to attack them. Sonic and the others, however, normally didn't get that warning.

It had snowed earlier in the day. A small blizzard might be a more appropriate description. Several feet were measured by some in the area in low valleys and banks. Where Sonic, Tail and Knuckles were hadn't been well traveled. Snow piled up untouched around them and dusted the layer of ice on the pond, though they couldn't see it because of the dark.

Sonic felt a new layer of goosebumps run across his arms. He had initially stumbled out of the house, half-awake after Tails had startled him from a nap to let him know about Eggman's plan, which had come through because Tails intercepted a radio signal from Eggman ordering some robots around. Now, Sonic was now completely alert and ready for some action. He rubbed his hands over the length of his arms and cheerfully stepped forward to the edge of the pond.

"Yeah, Eggman isn't exactly a master of manners like that," he said. He stared out, breaking out into a grin. "Makes it more fun to be a surprise, right?"

Tails and Knuckles didn't answer right away, instead following Sonic to the edge of the pond.

"That wouldn't be the word I would use," Knuckles said, more than used to Sonic's ability to get excited over potentially catastrophic situations, "but whatever works for you."

Tails stared pensively ahead. Sonic could see Tails' breath forming in front of him when he exhaled. He wondered if Tails was thinking about what type of robots Eggman would use to ambush them.

Not that he wasn't impressed by Tails' ability of thinking ahead, but he also knew Tails could get weighed down by his own anxious thoughts sometimes. He decided to lighten things up.

Sonic stepped out onto the lake, intending to slide forward. He fell instead, landing hard on his side.

He got up, surprised to see Tails and Knuckles strolling easily on the icy surface.

"Slippery," Sonic chuckled, trying to stand up. He looked at them. "How come you guys aren't sliding around?" Standing up was a losing battle at this point.

Knuckles crossed his arms, appraising Sonic with a raised eyebrow.

"Whoa," he said. "You should learn to keep your balance. It's a good skill to have."

Sonic gritted his teeth, too distracted from trying to maintain a semblance of equilibrium to think of a decent response. He managed to stand straight. It lasted for a second.

Tails helped him up.

"Your shoes must not have a lot of traction," Tails said, looking down at Sonic's shoes.

Unlike Knuckles, Sonic realized with some relief, Tails wasn't being schadenfreudic about it.

"Guess not," Sonic said.

"Might want to think about new shoes," Knuckles said, trying to adopt Tails' diplomatic way of speaking, but Sonic clearly heard the smirk in his voice.

"Might want to think about not being an ass," Sonic returned, relieved he finally had his bearings enough to speak.

Knuckles actually smirked this time. "Yeah? So I can flail around like you?"

Sonic paused, unsure how to respond. He grinned, then turned sharply toward Knuckles, causing him to jump slightly.

"Whoops," Sonic said, continuing to grin. "Guess I was _flailing_ too much."

Without speaking, Knuckles reached with a mitted hand and nudged Sonic's arm. Sonic immediately lost his balance, grabbing Tails' shoulders for support. Sonic chuckled, embarrassed once he regained balance, and quickly let Tails go.

Knuckles smiled to himself, Sonic glaring at him until Tails turned to Sonic, looking anxious. Sonic realized Tails was still thinking about Eggman's attack.

"You should probably head back," Tails said.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked, returning Tails' look.

"I mean back, away from the ice," Tails explained, pointing toward the forest. "You can stand at the edge and destroy any robots that get past me and Knuckles."

"What Tails means," Knuckles said, relishing another opportunity to knock Sonic down a peg, "is that he doesn't want you flipping out like some fish out of the water in front of Eggman."

Sonic shrugged. He was beginning to feel more confident standing on the ice. It wasn't so bad, if you knew how to position your feet on it. He understood that Tails was worried he would get hurt, but knew that probably would not happen, as far as he could see. Sonic stepped forward.

"Hey, don't worry, I'll be fine!" He took another step and made the most spectacular fall of his life.

Sonic stood at the edge of the pond, still hearing Tails and Knuckles laughter from a distance. He had gone back, falling several more times to Knuckles' delight and Tails' reluctant grins.

Sonic's hand was on his hip, and his foot tapped irritably on the snowy ground. His hand on his hip was partly to nurse a stinging bruise. He sighed, shuffling toward the middle of the grass near the pond.

It only took a few moments. They heard the roar of engine, machine, then heard Eggman land, hovering on the other side of the pond. His robots, fat and oval-shaped, hung around him. Eggman and the robots were all surrounded by a blue aura that all three of them could clearly see, even in the darkening landscape. Eggman saw them and immediately began to shoot, sending the robots forth.

Knuckles and Tails jumped right away, destroying the robots with their feet and fists.

"What?!" Sonic shouted playfully to Eggman on the other side of the pond. "You aren't going to say hello first?"

Sonic could hear Eggman's grunt from the other side of the pond.

"I would rather weaken you all first with my robots, so I can go to the forest and get what I need without interference," Eggman responded, sounding bored.

As the robots continued to propel in all directions and as Knuckles and Tails continued to destroy them, Sonic tried goading Eggman again. It was the only thing he could do at the moment. Interfering with Tails and Knuckles' success at this point wasn't a good idea, and none of the robots were passing the two of them to the edge of the pond, where Sonic was.

"Why don't you just try going to the forest?" Sonic asked.

Eggman sighed noisily, as though explaining the reason would exude too much energy.

"This shield of mine is a rather good one," he said. "So good in fact, I can't pass it myself. It will keep me from being attacked for the time being, and so I decided to tire you all out before I let down my shield."

"You do know that won't happen?" Knuckles interjected, landing easily after ramming through a robot. "I hope you have a lot of robots."

"Don't worry," Eggman said, the first hints of his mad exuberance coming through his voice. "I do."

More robots flew toward them. Tails shouted. Knuckles tried to look at him as they fought off robots.

"We've got this!" Knuckles said, sounding a little out of breath for the first time. He reached his hand out to Tails, hoping his expression would reassure him. "Ready?"

Tails looked at Knuckles, then grinned. "You bet!"

"Guys!" Sonic shouted, as two robots had made it to the other side. He raced over and destroyed them. Though relieved at having something to do, he also didn't want Knuckles and Tails to get caught off guard.

Knuckles lifted up his other hand, giving Sonic a terse thumbs-up. He offered his other hand to Tails. Tails used his tails to fly up, letting Knuckles grab his shoe.

Knuckles swung him, then let go. Tails shot through the air, taking out a half dozen robots.

"Woo hoo!" Sonic exclaimed, bursting with joy both at Tails' move and Eggman's sweet takedown.

He had been pacing from one edge of the pond to the other, but now decided to run, zipping up and down the edge, cheering Tails and Knuckles on whenever possible. "Go Tails!," "Nice shot Knux!"

"What are you doing over there?" Eggman asked, squinting at Sonic's form on the other side, barely visible at this point from nightfall.

"Waiting for you to put down your shield," Sonic returned.

Eggman sighed, staring lazily out at Knuckles and Tails, who continued to fight. "You both are looking rather tired," Eggman said with mock pity. "It's too bad that Sonic would rather stand there and watch you exhaust yourselves."

"Whatever, Eggman!" Tails shouted, causing Knuckles to glance at him. "We could do this all night!"

Eggman went silent. When he spoke, his voice became serious, ominous in the dark and cold.

"Unfortunately, I do not have time to waste."

A battalion of robot shot forward. Sonic barely saw in the dark, clouded by his own vapor of breath, Tails falling to the ground.

"TAILS!" Sonic ran onto the center of the pond, coming down beside Tails. Knuckles looked at Sonic but didn't say anything, rearing up and furiously fighting off robots.

Tails opened his eyes and looked at Sonic woozily. Sonic laughed, grateful he was conscious.

"Probably not the best reaction to have," Sonic said apologetically about his laughter. "You OK?" Tails gave a wry smile.

"Yeah," Tails said, then paused. "You didn't slip."

Sonic hadn't noticed. He looked down. He was kneeling at this point, but still impressed that his feet were firmly set on the ice.

"I watched you run over here," Tails said. "You didn't slip."

"Huh," Sonic said, trying to downplay the sense of accomplishment he suddenly felt. "Nice."

"We must have roughened up the ice by fighting, so it's not as slippery," Tails said. Sonic nodded.

Knuckles' voice cut through their conversation, having a rare edge of panic.

"Need a little help here!" he shouted. Tails and Sonic immediately stood up, bracing as more robots came their way.

Tails fought off a group of robots to the right, seeming fairly recovered. Sonic stood between Tails and Knuckles, watching nuts, bolts and any number of robotic parts fall to the ground as the three of them took the robots out.

Sonic laughed, surprised how easy to was to stand up and jump if he needed to. The ice really must have roughened up. He wasn't slipping a bit.

As it turned out a moment later, it was not rough enough.

Sonic saw a robot dart toward his foot. He jumped to dodge it, but slipped. The world tilted forward as Sonic fully flipped through the air. When he was completely upside down, he felt an object against his foot that was then thrust forward. His foot, and his head, hit the ground.

Sonic kept his eyes closed for a moment while pain flared and ebbed away from his jaw, which seemed to get the brunt of the fall. He heard something like an electrical explosion, causing him to look up.

The robot that had bounced from his foot had blasted away the protective shield and hit Eggman's egg mobile itself, sending it and Eggman flying away. Sonic could hear Eggman cursing before he disappeared completely. Sonic sighed, feeling satisfied.

He gingerly sat up, then glanced at Tails and Knuckles, who looked equally content.

"What happened?" Sonic asked.

Knuckles smirked. "You kicked the robot into Eggman's shield when you flipped over." He shook his head. "It must have worked enough to knock it down."

Sonic stared at the ground, intent, thinking back on the flip. That couldn't have been the whole story. Something else had happened. He knew it. Sonic remembered feeling the robot's metal casing on the sole of his shoe, but there was something on the top of his shoe as well. Was it another robot, or…

Sonic grinned, looking at Knuckles and realizing exactly what had happened.

"Nice try," he said. When Sonic had flipped over, Knuckles had taken the top of his shoe and pushed it forward, giving the robot enough momentum to be sent back to Eggman. It might as well have been tied with a bow with smiley faces and their signatures. "You can take some credit for it, you know."

"Guess so," Knuckles said, smiling. He stopped. "Wait, don't you mean all the credit? You can't really count a random fall as doing anything."

"But it was my foot," Sonic returned, grinning. He looked at Knuckles. "Thanks Knux."

"Anytime, man," Knuckles said, smiled, then stared at the forest.

Tails blew on his hands, then rubbed them while looking around. "It's sort of peaceful here," he said. "I hadn't noticed it before with Eggman and all."

Sonic agreed silently, staring dreamily at the gap between the top of the trees and the sky, which had broken out in stars sometime during their fight. They could come and pick up the remnants in the morning. Heck, the scrap metal could probably be made into shields or something.

They walked from the pond onto the ground. Sonic turned around to face the pond, spreading both of his arms out.

"Who's up for a snow angel?" he said, almost to himself as he let himself fall back.

"Sonic wait!" Tails shouted. Knuckles laughed silently as Sonic fell into a bank three feet deep. Snow fell off the sides of the indention Sonic's body had made and covered his face. Shock turned into discomfort and embarrassment as he slowly started to go numb. Sonic stood up, awkwardly.

"That wasn't the best idea," he shivered, suddenly ready for another nap, or at least to feel his feet. Knuckles smirked. Taking one last look at the peaceful landscape, the three of them walked back.


End file.
